GET Georgia presents the first issue of the Banking Sector Monitor Georgia

During a trip to Tbilisi, Dr Ricardo Giucci, Team Leader of the German Economic Team (GET) Georgia, and Dr Alexander Lehmann, financial sector expert, presented the first issue of the Banking Sector Monitor Georgia.

This product is consistently done in several countries in the region and reveales that the Georgian banking sector is a major asset in the investment environment. The publication analyses the sector in a regional context. It sketches the sector’s potential to further support growth and innovation in Georgia and to provide wider access to credit for households and enterprises. It also highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the banking sector for Georgia’s future development. Key findings of the analysis are:

1) The banking sector has further consolidated. Declining margins in lending and improving efficiency in the sector suggest competition is working well.

2) Corporate governance practice is underpinned by the foreign listings of the two largest banks. The government should further strengthen the local law in this regard.

3) The system has withstood well the fluctuations in the exchange rate, and ample buffers in banks’ capital ratios are reassuring.

4) Access to credit is good overall, even though growth in credit to SMEs has not kept pace with that observed in retail lending.

On 13 March, Dr Giucci and Dr Lehmann presented the Banking Sector Monitor at the Business Roundtable of the American Chamber of Commerce. After the presentation, Otar Gorgodze, Head of Specialized Groups and Supervisory Policy Department at the NBG, commented on the topic. The event was attended by a high-profile audience. Ca 80 representatives of the corporate sector, commercial banks, international donor organisations and German institutions used the opportinuty to discuss the topic.

To present the findings of the banking sector analysis also to a wider audience, the publication was additionally presented during a press conference at ISET, the partner institute of GET Georgia, on 14 March.